NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - College students who went
through traumatic experiences as children may be at greater
risk of developing an eating disorder, a new study suggests.

Two hundred nine freshmen students completed questionnaires
on trauma history at the beginning and at the end of a
semester. The students were also asked if they had ever
suffered various broad categories of trauma -- such as violent
trauma, sexual trauma or the death of a loved one -- and had
them rate how severely they had been affected the event.

The subjects were between 18 and 19 years old, 55 percent
were female and most - 96.3 percent - were Caucasian. Over the
course of the study, 30 students dropped out.

The researchers found that students with a history of
trauma -- ranging from the divorce of their parents, to the
death of a loved one, to physical or sexual abuse -- were more
likely to have symptoms of an eating disorder.

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Students who, for example, said they'd suffered a "violent
trauma" in the past were more likely than their peers to skip
meals, fast, binge-eat or abuse diet pills or laxatives.
Bingeing, laxative abuse and vomiting were also more common
among students who said they'd been traumatized by divorce or
the death of someone they loved.

Previous studies have found that victims of childhood
sexual abuse are at increased risk of bulimia and, to a lesser
extent, anorexia.

The current findings suggest that a range of childhood
traumas may contribute to eating disorder risk, according to
the researchers, led by Dr. Joshua M. Smyth, an associate
professor of psychology at Syracuse University in New York.

They report the results in the International Journal of
Eating Disorders.

Overall, Smyth's team found, students with a history of
childhood trauma were both more likely to already have
eating-related problems and more likely to develop new problems
over the course of the semester.

The findings have implications for screening and prevention
of eating disorders in college, according to the researchers.
It's estimated that 2 percent to 4 percent of college students
have an eating disorder, they note, and many more have symptoms
that fall short of an eating disorder diagnosis, but are
nonetheless serious.

The "most direct" way to reach at-risk college students,
Smyth and his colleagues suggest, would be to screen incoming
freshman for past traumas, then provide them with information
on how to get help.

However, if that is too intrusive, they add, colleges could
instead offer an information session to all incoming students
on how to get counseling or other supportive services.